Correcting your thesis

Recommendations for award subject to editorial and presentational corrections or minor deficiencies cannot be confirmed unless the internal examiner is satisfied that the required corrections have been carried out to a satisfactory standard.

After successful examination you should begin to prepare the final version of your thesis by undertaking any corrections and returning these to your Internal Examiner within the normal time period:

4 weeks from the date of the viva for editorial & presentational corrections

12 weeks from the date of the viva for minor deficiencies

Individual pages of the thesis must be fully corrected and it is not possible to simply provide an errata page. You must also ensure that the thesis abstract remains

You are advised to consult with your Supervisor(s) throughout this process. The Internal Examiner does not take a supervisory role during the correction period. They may, however, provide clarification of the corrections required. If you are unclear about any of the minor deficiencies requiring correction you must seek clarification promptly, and at an early point in the correction period. You should consult with your supervisor in the first instance and, if appropriate, your supervisor may contact the Internal Examiner for further clarification.

If you experience any problems completing and returning the corrections to your internal examiner by the 4/12 week deadline you must draw this promptly to the attention of your Faculty/School PGR Administrator (or your supervisor or Director of PGR Studies). The Graduate Boards Examinations Group will consider a short extension to the correction deadline if PGRs experience difficulties during the correction period and need extra time because of, for example, illness, work or family commitments.

Approval of corrections

Please submit your corrections to your internal examiner for checking along with information outlining what corrections you have made. This could be in the form of tracked changes or as a separate list. Please check with your internal examiner what format they would prefer.

Once the internal examiner has approved the corrections (possibly after consultation with the external examiner) they will confirm this and your final thesis can be printed and hard-bound. You can do this as soon as you have heard from your internal examiner and should not wait to hear from PGR & Operations. For more information about submitting your thesis and eThesis, read our page on submitting your eThesis.

Submission of your final, hard-bound thesis

The University has specific requirements for the format and binding of the hard-bound thesis. These are explained in detail in our Guide to the thesis examination process. Please read these carefully.

One copy of the fully corrected hard-bound thesis should be submitted to Postgraduate Research and Operations via the Student Services Centre counter. Some schools also hold a copy of the final thesis in a local library; in other cases a copy of the thesis is retained by the supervisor and arrangements for deposit of this copy should be made directly with the appropriate school/faculty office.

In the case of PGRs registered at one of the Accredited Institutions (YSJU or LTU): Two copies of the fully corrected hard-bound thesis should be submitted to Postgraduate Research and Operations via the Student Services Centre counter. One copy will be held in the University of Leeds Library, the other copy will be returned to the Institution.

If you are away from Leeds or not able to visit the SSC easily to submit your thesis: it is possible to arrange binding online through the University's Print & Copy Bureau in accordance with the Thesis Format Regulations, and a member of PGR & Operations staff will collect the thesis on your behalf (please email rp_examinations@adm.leeds.ac.uk if you would like PGR&O to collect your thesis).

Deadlines for submission of the final hard bound thesis are as follows:

If the award of the degree was recommended without corrections, your hard-bound thesis must be submitted no later than one month after the oral examination.

If you have made editorial and presentational corrections or minor deficiencies, the deadline is no later than one month after the corrections are approved.

If you are not required to provide your thesis in eThesis format then please download a print version of the thesis deposit form to complete and submit with your hard bound thesis.

Uploading your final eThesis

If you're a doctoral student and you started your studies in or after September 2009, you'll also need to deposit an exact, PDF copy of your final thesis in White Rose eTheses Online (WREO) using the online eThesis deposit process. Please see our eThesis page for further details.

Once you've uploaded your eThesis, a confirmation email will be sent to you, your supervisor(s) and Postgraduate Research and Operations. Your eThesis will not be made live until after your degree has been awarded and your name has appeared on a pass list. However, if you've placed an embargo on access to your thesis, your eThesis will not go live until after the embargo has expired.

You must discuss the retention of thesis arrangements with your supervisor before you upload your eThesis. As part of the eThesis upload process you'll be asked to indicate whether your eThesis (and hard-bound thesis) can be made immediately available or whether a restriction on access is needed, for example if your work is commercially or politically sensitive or if you're planning to publish. Please see our eThesis page for further details and the Guide to the thesis examination process.

If you're not required to deposit an eThesis, you must complete a printed thesis deposit form and submit this to Postgraduate Research and Operations with the final, hard-bound version of your thesis. This form specifies the retention of thesis arrangements for the library and whether or not your thesis can be made immediately.